Ron Paul on Selling Freedom

Nov 15, 2012

RUSH: Now, I want to play these Ron Paul sound bites. I was gonna hold this off ’til the next hour, but I’ve started in this direction. And, no, I have not forgotten about Benghazi and the timeline here. We’re gonna get to all that. Ron Paul, farewell speech to Congress yesterday. We got two sound bites. I found this intriguing.

PAUL: I thought a lot about why those of us who believe in liberty as a solution have done so poorly in convincing others of its benefits. If liberty is what we claim it is, the principle that protects all personal, social, and economic decisions necessary for maximum prosperity and the best chance for peace, it should be an easy sell. Yet history has shown that the masses have been quite receptive to the promises of authoritarians which are rarely, if ever, fulfilled.

RUSH: Has he not just nailed it there? He has for me. I know a lot of you think we’re listening to kookville here, but, for me, this nails it. We are the party of liberty. We are the essence of liberty and freedom. That’s what it’s all about. When I made my CPAC speech, the theme was liberty. We want this to be the greatest country ever. We want you to be the best you can be. We want everybody to be the best they can be. We want to get all the obstacles out of people’s way. Freedom. Why is that a hard sell? Because it is. Freedom did not win in this election. Freedom did not win. Why is it a hard sell? Why are those of us proclaiming freedom, why are we the ones mocked, laughed at, insulted or impugned? ‘Cause that’s all we stand for, that’s all we want for anybody and ourselves is liberty and freedom.

And yet look at how we’re really viewed. We are seen as the deniers of freedom. And why? Well, we don’t believe in abortion, and to the left the ultimate freedom is aborting your baby. Gay marriage. We’re said to be on the wrong side of gay marriage. To the left, especially to the young today, gay marriage, gay rights is the legalized pot issue of the sixties. It is the thing they care most about. It is the civil rights issue of the sixties. Gay rights and gay marriage, among young college people, age 30, maybe a little older.

We are not looked at as people who believe in freedom. They see us as thwarting their freedom. Figure that. Now, there’s a reason why. I know the answer. That is because on our side, along with freedom, there are natural limits to it that we call morality. And that’s what the other side doesn’t want any part of. You start talking about morality, that’s judgmental. That’s not freedom. If you start implementing morality, they say you’re imposing your moral views on everybody, when all we think we’re doing is continuing traditions and institutions which have been shown to maintain the freest, most productive, conducive, peaceful society the world has known.

Morality is a key element. Don’t talk to them about that. Morality, it’s old-fashioned, it’s none of your business. I mean, when Romney goes around and talks about limiting regulations on entrepreneurs, it’s the essence of the liberty agenda, it’s the essence of an economic free agenda. But culturally, freedom in pop culture means no obstacles on the road to what we call depravity and decadence. They call it enlightenment, emancipation. I’m sorry. To fix this is going to be a cultural undertaking, in addition to or instead of political. Here’s the next Ron Paul bite.

PAUL: If authoritarianism leads to poverty and war and less freedom for all individuals and is controlled by rich special interests, the people should be begging for liberty. There certainly was a strong enough sentiment for more freedom at the time of our founding that motivated those who were willing to fight in the revolution against the powerful British government. During my time in Congress, the appetite for liberty has been quite weak, the understanding of its significance negligible.

RUSH: That’s just how they define it, Congressman. What he thinks is liberty and freedom is the absence of totalitarianism, authoritarianism. It’s not at all how pop cultural leftists see freedom. They see freedom as no conservatives around. They see freedom as no corporations. They see freedom as you don’t have to work, and you can still live. You don’t have to have to accept any responsibility or accountability. It will be taken care of. A doctor shouldn’t profit from making somebody well. You want to talk about morality, to them that’s immoral. Because at the top of all this has been decade after decade after decade of the trashing of capitalism.

What do you think free markets means to the vast majority of people that voted for Obama? You think it means anything? Do you think the phrase “free markets” means anything to them? Greed, exploitation, taking advantage of. Free markets to them is evil corporations outsourcing jobs or paying people the minimum wage. It’s the opposite of fair markets. Fair markets, of course, are when authoritarians make rules for everybody that they must follow.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Vic in Genoa, Illinois. Hello and welcome to the program.

CALLER: Thanks, Rush. It is great to talk to you.

RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.

CALLER: Yeah, we’re all sitting out here licking our wounds over the election, but we gotta keep moving on anyway, right?

RUSH: Exactly. It’s either that or move to Australia with Hillary.

CALLER: I think I’ve got at least some food for thought. You know, I hesitate to talk in front of millions of people and say I have an answer to anything, but I certainly have some food for thought. You’re asking the question about why is it so hard for us to really grasp the concept of freedom today and what all it means, and I think the answer —

RUSH: And along with that is, why is it so difficult to grasp among today’s young people?

CALLER: Okay, the answer, I think, is responsibility. Today we live in a generation where we teach young people that responsibility isn’t theirs. It’s somebody else’s. It surrounds them in everything that they do. They go to school and they get told they’re not gonna do as well as their parents, this country has no opportunity left in it, you’re gonna have to rely on someone else. So they believe that, so now they think, “Gosh, there’s a lot of risk, I might fail. If I exercise my freedom to do the best that I can for me, yes, there’s a risk I’ll succeed, yes, there is a risk I’ll fail.” Well, failure, gosh, that’s so scary today, so responsibility is the thing that we’re really kind of educating out of our kids.

RUSH: I think there’s a lot of truth to that, folks, because freedom inherently requires responsibility.

CALLER: Yeah. That’s why they’re moving home in droves, and that’s why we’re gonna insure them until they’re 26 years old. I mean, that’s why the lawyers are on TV telling them constantly we’re gonna get you the money you deserve, we’re gonna get you the money that you’re entitled to because it’s somebody else’s fault.

RUSH: It’s always the teacher who’s wrong, right?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: When you and I went to school, the teacher was always right.

CALLER: When you and I went to school, when we were kids, if we had a couple of bucks in our pocket, man, we were rich, and we made that last as long as we possibly could. Today the kids have so much, they have so much that they don’t know what it’s like to do without. So they don’t worry too much about getting out there and getting more. If the government gives them a minimum life, hey, that’s good enough for me. If I don’t have to work too hard for it, take a lot of responsibility —

RUSH: Baracka Claus. People are willing to vote themselves a lifestyle they’re unwilling to earn.

CALLER: Absolutely. And as far as this morality thing goes, I tell you, it just makes me sick because, you know, you talked about how, you know, we’re getting away from morality. Well, the very people that are teaching us that morality doesn’t count and it’s not important anymore are the same people that are persecuting David Petraeus. So, I mean, it’s as crazy as it can be.

RUSH: It is. But, part of the solution is correctly identifying what it is that you’re fighting and trying to change. And I really think we’ve been missing it, looking at it purely in political terms. Understandable. Elections are fought on political battlegrounds but this is gonna have to take place in other ways. Look, Vic, I’m glad you called out there.